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Early Roman Empire
The '''Early Roman Empire' lasted from about 31 BC until 180 AD. It began with the defeat of Antony and Cleopatra, that left Octavian Caesar Augustus the master of the Roman world. It then ended with the succession to the throne of the Emperor Commodus in 180 AD, which ushered in an era of increasing crisis for the Roman Empire. Though no man is an empire, the nature and government of the Roman Empire were to an astonishing degree the creation of one man of outstanding ability; Emperor Augustus. He shrewdly re-established the political reality of his great-uncle’s dictatorship through slow and patient incremental gains in power, while strictly maintaining a façade of Republican piety. While a later age would bemoan the lack of democratic process in the Roman Empire, all the evidence indicates that administration notably improved under a complex bureaucracy with remarkable scope, by comparison with the corruption of the last century of the Republic. The rulers of the Roman world did not usually live easy lives; of the five Emperors who succeeded Augustus, only one died a natural death. The legions were now the ultimate basis of power, and if there was a succession crisis, then the soldiers would decide. This happened in the first great burst of civil war to shake the Roman Empire, the year of the Four Emperors of 69 AD, from which emerged Vespasian. He was the first of an unprecedented series of eight successful or moderately successful emperors. This golden age of political stability and prosperity we now know as the Pax Romana ''(69-180 AD), and included many of the greatest emperors who ever ruled ancient Rome, such as Trajan, Hadrian and Marcus Aurelius. History Emperor Augustus (31 BC-14 AD) Though no man is an empire, not even the great Alexander, the nature and government of the Roman Empire were to an astonishing degree the creation of one man of outstanding administrative ability, After Actium and the defeat of Mark Antony, it was time for Octavian to put his ruthless and cold-stained rise to power behind him. '''Caesar Augustus', as we can now call him, had every card in his hand and judiciously refrained from playing them, leaving it to his opponents to recognise his strength. The example of Julius Caesar's end made him extremely cautious in pursuit of absolute power. It would take year to re-established the reality of his great-uncle’s Dictatorship through slow and deliberate incremental gains in power, behind an outward façade of Republican piety. It was his good fortune that he lived well into his seventies, a reign of over forty years, in order to establish his personal rule as the first Roman Emperor. To prepare the population for his ascent to near godhood, Augustus had his boyhood friend Gaius Maecenas set his army of poets to the task of glorifying their patron. The culmination of this poetic propaganda campaign was The Aeneid written by Virgil (d. 19 BC), which legitimised the Julio-Claudian dynasty by linking the family directly to the very founding myth of Rome; it would stand as one of the few outstanding masterpieces of Latin verse. Horace (d. 8 BC) meanwhile praised Augustus as a defender of Rome, an upholder of moral justice, and the man who brought peace and prosperity. For the first few years, Caesar Augustus was simply Consul, often alongside his closest confidant Marcus Agrippa, which gave him all the legitimate power to rule the empire. His stated aims were simply to return Rome to a state of stability, traditional legality, free elections at least in appearance, and to demobilise many of the legions from the civil war, a task made relatively easy thanks to Cleopatra's captured treasury. Eventually being Consul for year after year was no longer a stable base upon which to rest his authority. In 27 BC, he finally felt strong enough to begin working out the details of his new world order with the Senate, long since purged of hardcore Republican sentiment. When he announced to the assembly his intention to step down as Consul, the Senators tripped over themselves begging him to reconsider. With much feigned reluctance, he instead accepted a ten-year term as governor of just five provinces, Spain, Gaul, Syria, Cilicia (southern Anatolia), and Egypt. These particular provinces all stood on the borders of the empire, and just so happened to be where 20 of the 28 standing legions were based. It was also at this time that the Senate granted him his official title of Augustus, meaning "the illustrious one", although he usually went by the humbler title of First Citizen. Once the arrangement was reached, Augustus left Rome to tour his new provinces and allow the Senate a degree of autonomy. Despite being supremely powerful in his own provinces, he eventually found himself left awkwardly without any true legal authority in the other provinces and in Italy itself. So in 23 BC, he reached a new settlement with the Senate for two new constitutional steps: he was awarded the powers of a Tribune for life, thus the ability to propose or veto legislation in the Roman Senate; and authority to interfere in any province he visited, even above the sitting governor. The resulting constitutional framework, known as the Principate, would be the basis of imperial power until 284 AD, after which it evolved into the so-called Dominate. Now with near-absolute power over the Roman Empire, Augustus was smart enough never indulged in it; he rarely personally proposed or vetoed legislation, preferring instead to work behind the elected officials. These were not Caesar Augustus' only powers. He was of course immensely wealthy, having built on the fortune inherited from Julius Caesar, with the treasury of Anthony and Egypt. His fortune allowed him such luxuries as personally paying for infrastructure projects, which greatly enhanced his esteem with the people. In the settlement of 23 BC, Augustus had also been granted powers usually reserved for the Roman Censor. These included a rather vaguely defined responsibility for public morality, a role he actively indulged in. Augustus was appalled at the social excesses of Rome, and passed numerous laws aimed at incentivising marriage, encouraging large families, penalising adultery, discouraging extravagance, and reviving worship of the traditional gods. But Augustus himself had a well earned reputation as a philanderer, and his hypocritical morality laws did little to change anyone's behaviour. In 12 BC, after the death of his former Triumvirate partner Marcus Lepidus, he additionally took up the position of Chief Priest of Rome. Thus Augustus was now the semi-official head of the state, the military, and the church. He used his powers to implement major reforms: he began building a permanent and competent civil service at all levels of government; created a superb network of roads and relay stations to maintain communication and facilitate trade; performed the first full census of the Roman people since 70 BC; implemented a major overhaul of the taxation system that had been full of corruption, dishonesty and extortion; and created police and fire-fighting services for Rome. He was also a prolific builder, famously boasting on his deathbed, "I found a Rome of bricks; I leave to you one of marble." He directly contributed or encourage numerous additions to the Roman skyline: the Temple of Caesar, the Baths of Agrippa, the Forum of Augustus, the Theatre of Balbus, the Pantheon, the Mausoleum of Augustus, the Arch of Augustus, and a new pair of aqueducts delivering fresh water to the city. When it came to military affairs, in 29 BC, Caesar Augustus ordered the doors to the Temple of Janus closed for the first time in over 200 years. This symbolic sign that Rome was no longer at war could not have been less appropriate. His reign was marked by virtually ceaseless military campaigns. Augustus settled on keeping 28 standing legions, about 150,000 men, posted on the frontiers (primarily in Gaul, Spain, and Syria) where they would guard the empire from foreign invasion. One legion was for the first time stationed in Italy itself, the Praetorian Guard, who acted as Augustus' personal bodyguards. Military operations meanwhile continued on many fronts. Augustus’ first concern was Rome's most powerful neighbour, Parthian Persia. He intended to embrace a new policy of mutual co-existence, but not before dealing with the all-important buffer-state of Armenia, which in recent decades had fallen under Parthian influence. With a large Roman army stationed on the border, the troublesome pro-Parthian king was ousted from power, and replaced with a hand picked Roman successor. Now bargaining from a position of strength, Augustus arranged a "lasting peace" with Parthia, in exchange for the return of Rome's lost honour; the sacred legionary standards lost by Crassus 33 years earlier. When they were finally brought back to Rome, the people celebrated as if a great victory had been won. With the eastern border now secure, Augustus set his sights on all the other frontier areas. He plugged the glaring holes within the empire; the unpacified tribes of the Alps and northern Spain were reduced. In the north, Augustus planned to settle the empire's frontier on the naturally defensible Danube and Elbe rivers. While he succeeded in his goal with the former, conquest to the River Elbe came to a disastrous end in the Teutoburg Forest (9 AD). A Germanic chieftain called Arminius, a supposedly staunch Roman ally, led the Romans into an ambush, where three full legions were virtually destroyed; the legion numbers XVII, XVIII and XIX were for the most part never used again. In all its long history, Rome would never again seriously attempt to extend the frontier beyond the River Rhine. Although Augustus lived well into his 70s, his frequent illnesses meant that the question of who would inherit his unique position was at the forefront throughout his reign. At various stages, he groomed close relatives to succeed him, but his search for an heir was tinged with tragedy. The first choice was his nephew Marcellus, but he died of a fever in 23 BC. His closest friend Marcus Agrippa seems to have long been the fallback, but his death predated Augustus' in 12 BC. After that one grandson and possible heir died in 2 AD, another in 4 AD, and yet another was banished in 9 AD. In the end, he was succeeded by his step-son, Tiberius, who despite heavy lobbying by his mother had always been treated as a backup-plan at best. After his death in 14 AD, Augustus was deified as Julius Caesar had been. His reign laid the foundations of a regime that would lasted, in one form or another, for fifteen hundred years until the fall of the Byzantine Empire in 1453. He is usually consider one of the greatest Roman Emperor, if not the greatest. He left the Roman Empire so strong, prosperous and stable that for a long time it was able to survive the excesses of his dynastic successors, who were often an object lesson in why absolute power should not be held by just one man. It was a lesson that the Romans would never learn; there were no serious attempts to restore the Roman Republic. Emperor Tiberius (14-37 AD) The transfere of power from Augustus to his stepson Tiberius was fraught with danger, but in the end it was pulled off without a hitch. In his first few years, Tiberius was prudent and dedicated ruler: he dealt quickly and effectively with some early minor mutinies in the legions; did his best to resolve border disputes peacefully, improved the infrastructure of the empire and made the civil service more efficient. However, he lacked Augustus' natural rapport with the Senate, and seems to have suffered from something of a persecution complex, having spent most of his life as Augustus' backup-plan for heir. His insecurity expressed itself in a bitter jealousy of his charismatic nephew Germanicus, who became wildly popular after a series of relatively minor campaigns against the Germanic tribes across the Rhine in the wake of the humiliation in the Teutoburg Forest. Germanicus died of a mysterious illness in 19 AD, and on his deathbed accused Tiberius of ordering him poisoned. Whether true or not, it was widely believed. As his own popularity with the people plummeted, Tiberius withdrew more and more from public life, and left the day-to-day running of the state to the man he'd entrusted with the important command of the Praetorian Guard, Lucius Aelius Sejanus (d. 31 AD). The ambitious Sejanus leaned hard on Tiberius’ natural paranoia to accumulate more and more power, and the emperor eventually became a recluse, withdrawing from Rome entirely to island of Capri. Sejanus used his powers to eliminate his political rivals, with treason trials becoming so commonplace that nobody felt safe. Historians widely accept that he arranged for the death of Tiberius’ son and heir who threatened his position. His method was elegant, if sinister; he seduced the boy's wife and convincing her to poison him. However in 31 AD, Tiberius somehow found out about Sejanus’ backstabbing scheming and had him executed. For the last six years of his reign, the cruel and paranoid Tiberius unleashed a terror of Rome that dwarfed anything perpetuated by Sejanus; purging anyone with even the loses connection to his former Praetorian commander. Tiberius' death in 37 AD was celebrated in Rome with the cry of "To the Tiber with Tiberius!", where the bodies of condemned criminals were typically thrown. Doubtless they believe that his successor could not possibly be any worse, but the Emperor Caligula would prove that it can always get worse. It is also noteworthy, that according to the Gospels, it was during Tiberius' reign that Jesus of Nazareth preached and was executed under the authority of Pontius Pilate, the governor of the Roman province of Judea. Emperor Caligula (37-41 AD) When Gaius Caesar Germanicus, known to history as Caligula, first became emperor he was admired by everyone; it was said that over 160,000 animals were sacrificed to celebrate the good news. He was the son of noble Germanicus, had the blood of Augustus in his veins, and most importantly he was not Tiberius. He was particularly loved by the army, having grown-up among his father's legions on the Rhine, where he would dress in a miniature soldier's outfit; the soldiers gave him the affectionate nickname Caligula or “''little boot''”. This turned out to be the only charming thing about him. For the first months of Caligula's reign, it seemed that things had indeed changed for the better. He immediately cancelled the treason trials, pardoned those who had gone into exile, and burned the evidence that had been gathered by Tiberius' spies in a great public bonfire. Popular but less financially prudent, he also threw lavish gladiatorial games, cancelled an unpopular tax, and granted a bonus to the legions. Then seven-months into his reign, Caligula fell severely ill, and when he recovered his personality had changed dramatically, becoming the megalomaniacal Caligula that history remembers. Many speculate that the illness caused him to lose his sanity. It is hardly surprising that the young emperor had psychological issues; he had spent his youth toadying to the paranoid Tiberius on the island of Capri, the man who had possibly had his father poisoned, and certainly killed his mother and his two brothers. Although his reign lasted just 4 years, that proved long enough to mark him down as the most infamous Emperors in Roman history. Stories of his cruelty, sadism, extravagance, and sexual perversity abound. He had prominent men arrested indiscriminately, sometimes simply because he coveted their estate, sometimes for mere amusement; he then forced their family to witness the execution. During parties, he would pick out one of the married women, disappear with her to the bedroom to rape her, and then return to describe the encounter to her shamed husband. He conquered the English Channel; or at least marched his legionss to the northern shoreline of Gaul as a supposed prelude to invading Britain, and then ordered them to collect seashells as the "spoils of war". In short, Caligula was a debauched madman, who took everything that made Tiberius’ final years unbearable, and made them ten times worse. By 41 BC, all of Rome was sick of this unpredictable tyrant. He was assassinated by a conspiracy of the Praetorian Guard, Senators, and courtiers. Emperor Claudius (41-54 AD) The assassination of Caligula threw Rome into a brief period of political chaos. The Senate met and began debating a change of government, but this quickly devolved into an argument over which of them should be the new Emperor. It was the Praetorian Guard who seized the initiative, and called it for Claudius, the uncle of Caligula. According to tradition, he had been found trembling behind a curtain in the palace after the assassination. It is a strange thing that Claudius became Emperor; he was clumsy, he stammered, and was considered something of a dullard. In fact this probably saved him from the purges of Tiberius and Caligula, since he was not seen as a threat; he was also an easy target for Caligula's cruel jokes. It is an even stranger thing still that Claudius turned out to be quite a good Emperor. His elevation also crystalised what would be the balance of power throughout the Roman Empire: the king-maker would often be the Praetorian Guard; other times it was the wider legions; and only occasionally was it the Senate, which gradually became simply an irrelevant social club for old men. Claudius took an active interest in governance, something the Empire had not really seen since Augustus. Despite his lack of experience, he proved to be an able and efficient administrator: he made the imperial bureaucracy more efficient and responsive by adding capable department heads; issued measured and reasonable legal judgements; was an ambitious builder, adding many new roads, aqueducts, and canals across the Empire; and nursed the imperial treasury back to health after the excesses of Caligula. He also treated the Senate with dignity, though relations between them were often difficult; many supported an ill-fated rebellion by the Governor of Dalmatia in 42 AD. This rebellion perhaps prompted Caligula to undertake his most famous achievement, beginning the conquest of Britain; Romans were never going to take him seriously as Emperor, unless he could add some impressive military victories to his name. Britain was an attractive target for Rome: it was a haven for rebellious Gauls; and a land rich in mineral deposits. Perhaps more important still, Claudius was following in the footsteps of the great Julius Caesar. Claudius sent the general Aulus Plautius across the Channel with four legions in 43 AD. British resistance was led by a tribe called the Catuvellauni, who held sway over most of the southeastern corner of England. The Celts proved no match for the disciplined legions advancing like a human tank, and were defeated at a hard fought battle near Rochester that raged for two days. Afterwards Plautius waited for the arrival of the Claudius himself, who took personal command for the capture of Colchester, which became the capital of the new province of Britannia. He had brought with him reinforcements and elephants which no doubt made a great impression on the Britons. He spent just 16 days on the island before returning to Rome to celebrate a Triumph. Within just four years, the southern third of Britain from the Humber to the Severn Estuary was firmly under Roman control. As well as Britain, Claudius formally annexed as provinces the former client-states of Thrace, Mauretania (North Africa), and Cilicia (southern Turkey). Despite his political and military achievements, Claudius’ personal life was a disaster. His first wife Messalina openly cuckolded him, plotted against him with her lover, and he had little option but execute both. He then married his niece Agrippina the Younger, who strove with a single-minded determination to put her own son Nero on the throne, over Claudius’ own natural son. Once achieved, she had the poor old man poisoned. Emperor Nero (54-68 AD) The reign of Nero is usually associated with cruelty, tyranny and extravagance. But many modern historians question the reliability of the surviving sources. At least three of the leader of minor rebellions in the years after his death presented themselves as "Nero reborn" to garner support, which hardly suggests he was widely unpopular. He did have rather difficult relations with the Senate, thus the Roman source are somewhat biased since most historians were of the Senatorial class. The Great Jewish Revolt of 66 AD and his zealous persecution of Christians meant other ancient sources are equally biased. In the end, Nero seem hardly a particularly good Emperor, but Rome would have far worse. Nero, the last of the Julio-Claudian Dynasty, ascended to the throne at barely sixteen-years-old, having had little preparation for being emperor. In the first few years, his overbearing mother Agrippina clearly wished to control the government through Nero, but the competent senior bureaucrats that Claudius had appointed were not content to remain her tools. Led by Burrus and Nero's former tutor Seneca, they encouraged the young emperor to act independently of her. In 56 AD, Agrippina was forced into retirement, and the result was six years of effective government: the treason trials that even Claudius had indulged in were rare, burdensome taxes were reduced, and slaves were granted rights against unjust masters. The troubles of this part of Nero's eventful reign were dealt with competently. The only major foreign war was the Roman–Parthian War (58–63 AD). Since the peace settlement of Augustus, it had been a Roman prerogative to appoint vassal kings in the buffer state of Armenia, a situation that the Armenians unsurprisingly chafed under; a pawn in the game of great powers. When an unpopular Roman-appointed king was deposed in a popular revolt, this allowed the Parthian king to intervene and set his own brother on the Armenian throne. Nero reacted vigorously, sending the able general Gnaeus Domitius Corbulo east, where he won a string of victories and seemed to bring the brief war to a satisfactory conclusion. But the Romans had been aided by the fact that the Parthian king was embroiled a series of revolts in his own country at the time. Once these had been dealt with, the Parthians turned their full attention to Armenia, and eventually inflicted a heavy and humiliating defeat on the overconfident Romans at the Battle of Rhandeia (62 AD). The war ultimately ended in a stalemate with a new compromise: henceforth a Parthian prince would sit on the Armenian throne, but his nomination had to be approved by Rome. Nevertheless it proved just the first in a long series of wars between Rome and Persia over Armenia. Around the same time, a ferocious uprising erupted in the Roman province of Britannia, that almost led Nero to seriously consider giving-up on the island completely. Boudica's Uprising (60 AD) was the result of Rome's own heavy-handedness. In 59 AD, the leader of the Iceni tribe, a Roman ally, died with no male heir. His will left control of the petty-kingdom to his widow Boudica (d. 61 AD), but the patriarchal Romans refused to recognise this, and proceeded to annex the region. According to some accounts, when the Iceni revolted, Boudicca was flogged and her two daughters raped, and the uprising quickly escalating, gathering other Celtic tribes with good cause to resentment the behaviour of the Romans. At this time, the bulk of the Roman legions were campaigning in Wales, and Boudica's rebels sacked and plundered Colchester (the capital of Britannia), London, St. Albans and other rich settlements, before a proper response could be rallied. Unfortunately for the native Britons, when it came to set-piece battles the Romans were second to none, even when outnumbered ten to one. At the Battle of Watling Street (61 AD) the rebellion was shattered and Boudica subsequently took her own life with poison, at least according to Tacitus. In the aftermath Nero did decide to appoint a new governor, who would adopt a more lenient approach to governing the province. The turning point in Nero's reign came in 62 AD, when both his key advisors either died or retired. While they had directed the government, Burrus and Seneca urged the young Emperor to use his autocratic powers responsibly, but released from their moderating influence, Nero’s policies turned towards indulging himself without reservation or hesitation; a budget busting megalomaniacal extravagance that soon began to weigh-down the whole empire. Traditionalists in Rome had long been unimpressed with the Emperor's personal behaviour: his fondness for cavorting with actors, his lute-playing, and his pretensions at being a charioteer. He now neglected of his official duties, and spent all his time at chariot-races. He also divorced his wife and married his mistress Poppaea, a beautiful but low-born woman with a scandal filled past; when his mother objected, he had her executed. When the people called for the former empress to return, he had his ex-wife executed too. Two years later, much of Rome was destroyed in the Great Fire of Rome (64 AD). In the aftermath of the fire, Nero's excesses were finally put on full display, building for himself a palatial and ostentatious palace complex in the very heart of the city. This led to the widespread belief that the emperor himself was to blame for the blaze, including the well-known myth that Nero had "fiddled while Rome burned". Recognising his sinking popularity, Nero himself made a scapegoat of what was then a minor Jewish sect called the Christians, embarking on their persecution in Rome with a cruel zeal that horrified many. According to tradition, St. Peter was crucified as part of this persecutions, and St. Peter's Basilica is supposedly built on the spot where he was buried. As unpopular as Nero was becoming in Rome, their dissatisfaction paled in comparison to the feeling of the people of Palestine; the Great Jewish Revolt (66-73 AD). Trouble had been brewing in the volatile province since Pompey Magnus conquered it in 63 BC, with growing tension between the monotheistic Jews and polytheistic Greco-Romans. But the spark for the Great Revolt was something far more basic, tax policy. While the system of "tax-farmers" had been done away with in much of the Empire, the Romans continued to rely on it in Judea. Private tax collectors would bid for the amount of tax expected, and then anything they brought in above that was the collectors profit; the system was notorious for corruption, extortion and other unscrupulous methods. These tax farmers were themselves usually Jews, thus the Great Revolt was both a Jewish revolt against foreign occupiers, and a civil war within the Jewish community itself, between those profiting from Roman rule and those who were not. In recent years, a hardline Jewish sect called the Zealots had acquired growing support, reinforced by their assassination of Jews who collaborate with the Romans. The Great Revolt began with a string of anti-taxation protests, which soon escalated to random attacks on Roman citizens, and then dramatically escalated when the Roman governor responded by sending troops to Great Temple of Jerusalem to claim some of the money there as taxes. This prompted a widespread, full-scale rebellion across Palestine and the local Roman garrisons were quickly overrun with great slaughter. With things clearly getting out of control, the governor of Syria sent one legion into Judea to restore order, but it was ambushed and defeated at the Battle of Beth Horon (66 AD) by the Jewish rebels. This victory would prove to be a mixed blessing; it convinced the rebels that Rome could be beaten, while at the same time convincing Roman that they were done taking the insurrection lightly. Nero appointed an experienced and unassuming general to take command in the east and do what was necessary to reassert Roman rule; Titus Flavius Vespasian, the future Emperor Vespasian. Vespasian arrived in Palestine with four full legions and began a systematic campaign of eradicating rebel strongholds and punishing the population; Jerusalem itself was left until last. As Jewish refugees flooded into Jerusalem, it created political turmoil that erupted into bloody factional violence, between moderates who wanted to open talks with the Romans, and hardliners like the Zealots for whom any talk of surrender invited death. Jerusalem finally fell to the Romans in 70 AD, following a brutal seven-month siege. Josephus, a Jewish historian who was with the Roman forces, provides vivid details of famine and cannibalism within the beleaguered city. The mopping-up operation continued for another three years, culminating in the famous siege at Masada, a virtually impregnable stronghold surrounded by sheer cliffs. It took a full year of rampart building for the Romans to even reach the walls. When they finally breached the walls, and found the entire population of 960 men, women, and children dead from a mass suicide pact. Masada quickly entered the Jewish collective consciousness, and is still revered today in Israel as "a symbol of Jewish heroism", although some argue the Zealots were bigoted extremist who preferred death to compromise. Meanwhile back in Rome, the city had had enough of Nero, who was bankrupting the Empire. Furthermore, after a failed assassination attempt in 65 AD, he had initiated his own little reign of terror. Servius Sulpicius Galba, the wise and experienced governor of Spain, eventually emerged as a rallying point for discontent, with the legions swearing to follow him if he declared himself in opposition to the emperor. Galba himself seems to have resisted such a move, but Nero declared him an enemy-of-the-state anyway. It proved a fatal mistake. The Praetorian Guard abandoned him, and Nero was obliged to flee Rome for his life; he eventually committing suicide when he learned that the Senate had declared him an enemy-of-the-state. His death ended the Julio-Claudian dynasty, and sparked a brief period of civil wars known as the Year of the Four Emperors. Year of the Four Emperors (69 AD) With no living male member of the Julio-Claudians, the death of Nero marked the end of the dynasty, and ushered in a period of chaotic uncertainty. No mechanism existed to determine which of dozens of highly ambitious men ought to be emperor. After the death of Caligula, the Praetorian Guard were the king-makers, this time it was the wider legions, who where the single most important power upon which imperial authority had always rested. Thus the Year of the Four Emperors '''(69 AD) can most easily be understood as a competition between the leading generals of the day. It was also the first time it was realised that Emperors could be made elsewhere than in Rome itself. On Nero's death, '''Servius Sulpicius Galba was popularly acclaimed as the new Emperor, but he did not remain popular for long. He was a renowned general, a well-respected provincial governor, but seem to completely lack political savvy. On his march to Rome, towns that did not immediately offer their full-throated support was punished often severely; many were sentenced to death without trial along with their families. Having lost much goodwill before reaching Rome, Galba set-to-work tackling the financial crisis that Nero had left, antagonising the Praetorian Guard in the process by refusing them an expected bonus; the Praetorian commander had promised the bonus in Galba's name. Galba was already an old man and childless, so the questions of who would succeed him immediately came to the fore. Wanting to reassure the Empire that the centre of power was Rome, he adopted a level-headed Senator, Lucius Calpurnius Piso Licinianus, as his heir. But this naturally thwarted the ambition of many, and one, an ambitious and greedy general called Marcus Salvius Otho, was willing to turn to extreme measures. In a coup d'etat, ''Galba was assassinated by the Praetorians, and within hours Otho was proclaimed emperor. The legions on the Rhine were meanwhile already in open revolt; the mutiny had actually begun in opposition to Galba, but saw no reason to stop now. Under their leader '''Aulus Vitelliu's marched on Rome, and defeated Otho at the Battle of Bedriacum in April; the legions defending the Rhine were the finest legions of the Empire. Now Vitellius was recognised as the third Emperor of the year, but Rome remained very skeptical; he accede to the office on the anniversary of the Battle of the Allia (390 BC), a day of bad auspices. Events proved the omens right. With the throne seemingly secure, Vitellius engaged in a series of banquets and Triumphal parades that drove the imperial treasury ever closer to bankruptcy. He then showed his violent nature, engaging in the pursuit of every possible rival. His growing number of enemies naturally looked to the most popular general of the day, Titus Flavius Vespasian, a general who had made his name during the conquest of Britannia, and was in the process of successfully suppressing a major uprising in Palestine. Practically the whole of the eastern Empire acclaimed him Emperor, and Vespasian heeded the call, marching on Italy while Vitellius’ troops were still drunk on victory; his son and second-in-command was entrusted with the Siege of Jerusalem, the future Emperor Titus. It would be a bloody end to a bloody year. Rome was taken by force, and the legions, drunk on victory, ran amuck in the streets for weeks, before Vespasian himself arrived in the city and restored order. With Emperor Vespasian, as it turned out, the Year of the Four Emperors had made a fine choice. Emperor Vespasian (69-79 AD) After the chaos of Year of the Four Emperors, Vespasian was the ideal man to rebuild Rome's confidence and to replenish her treasury, with his tough and pragmatic policies. He had two adult sons, capable men in their own right; he is the founder of the Flavian Dynasty of three emperors. From the start, he also proved himself at master of propaganda, in which he rivalled even the great Augustus. Acutely aware of the need to legitimise his reign and restore public respect for imperial authority. He was a generous patron to scholars and the arts who were to harp continually on one simple message; that Vespasian was the one who put the dark days of civil war behind Rome, and restored peace and stability. The great historians of the period (Tacitus, Josephus and Pliny) all speak suspiciously well of him while condemning the Emperors who came before him. Although he encourage stories of a supernatural Emperor who was destined to rule, in person he was refreshingly unpretentious, had a rustic charm, and lived a simple lifestyle. Needless to say after the frequent megalomania of the Julio-Claudians, this welcome change of pace greatly endeared him to the people. Little actual detail survives about Vespasian's ten-year reign. His main objective was to setting Rome back of firm financial footing after Nero's excesses. He revoked an immunity from taxes that Nero had given to the Eastern provinces, increased old taxes and instituted new ones. The most famous of these was his toilet tax, on public urine which was sold for various industrial purposes; when Vespasian's son complained about the disgusting nature of the tax, his father replied "money does not stink". Vespasian’s sound fiscal measures were so successful that he was able to plough the surplus into public works in Rome and the provinces. His crowning achievement was the dismantling of Nero’s sprawling palace, and in it's place order the construction of a massive amphitheatre known simply as the Colosseum; it remains one of Rome's most iconic tourist attractions. His relations with the Senate were on the whole excellent, encouraging men to say their piece honestly without fear of imperial reprisal; in sharp contrast to treason trials of the hyper-sensitive Julio-Claudians. After a 10 year reign of peace at home and abroad, Vespasian died of natural causes at the age of sixty-nine, becoming the first emperor to do so since Tiberius. According to the legend, his last words on his deathbed were, "Dear me, I think I'm becoming a god"; apparently the Senate agreed, for he was soon deified. Emperor Titus (79–81 AD) Vespasian had brought his eldest son Titus in to share the burden of empire years before, and he died confident he was handing power over to a capable man of experience, who could rule for many years. Alas, it was not to be, and he would last a scant two years as Emperor. Titus was every bit as self-confident as his father, leading to the same kind of pragmatic moderation in his rule. He was lorded by contemporaries for his generous spirit. Two disasters befell the Romans during his reign period: the famous eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 79 AD that destroyed the resort town of Pompeii; and another major fire in Rome in 80 AD destroyed a number of important building including Agrippa's original Pantheon. On both occasions, Titus was quick to set the full weight of the imperial treasury to the relief effort, clean-up and reconstruction. His popularity then soared when he completed the Colosseum begun by his father, inaugurating the stadium with a hundred days of gladiatorial matches, chariot races, and mock naval battles for which the theatre was flooded. It would prove to be his final official act as emperor. Titus fell ill with a fever shortly afterwards, and unexpectedly died at the age of just 41. Allegedly his last words were the enigmatic, "I have made but one mistake ..."; many have speculated that he meant leaving no heir to succeed him, except his younger brother Domitian. Emperor Domitian (81-96 AD) Vespasian had granted his younger son Domitian various ceremonial titles, but otherwise virtually ignored him, putting all his time and energy into Titus. Thus Rome lost an Emperor with extensive military and administrative experience, and gained in his place an untested prince with a chip-on-his-shoulder. In his youth, Domitian had been in the capital throughout the Year of the Four Emperors, and saw first-hand how readily the Senate swung with the political breeze. This experience taught him that the Senate was an ineffective partner at best, and a dangerous threat to the imperial peace at worst. As Emperor, he had no time for façade of Republican piety that Emperors since Augustus had been so careful to maintain. He went out of his way to enfeeble the Senate, concentrating all political power firmly in the imperial palace. The reality of Domitian's autocracy was further highlighted by the fact that he visited the provinces more than any emperor since Augustus, and wherever he went, he brought the imperial court with him; the court was now the centre of politics, not Rome itself. Needless to say, the ancient historians, who were all of Senatorial class, did not give Domitian the same glowing reputation of his father and elder brother; he was usually described as a tyrant. Yet contemporary historians have re-evaluated his reign, and largely concluded that he was an effective enlightened despot, popular with the people and legions, with sound military, administrative and economic policies. He could be ruthless undoubtedly, but executed no more men than cuddly old Emperor Claudius. 's Arc de Triomphe in Paris.]] Domitian was a micro-manager, and became personally involved in all branches of government. In many way his policies set the stage for the coming century of brilliance for the Roman Empire. He promoted men strictly on merit and weeded out corruption wherever his suspicious nature found it, with the result that the imperial bureaucracy never ran more efficiently, and the government was never as clean and honest in its dealings. He streamlined and rigidly enforced taxation. He revalued and stabilised the currency, with his predecessors having reduced the silver purity in order to pay Rome's debts; the 3rd-century AD would be one long running battle with devaluation and hyperinflation. With the capital still recovering from the fires of 64 and 80 AD, as well as the civil war, his building program was extensive, constructing or restoring some 50 buildings, more than any Emperor since Augustus. He also firmly believed in the traditional Roman religion, and insisted that ancient customs and morals were observed throughout his reign; he even revived Augustus' morality laws, with similar lackluster results. The military achievements during his reign were generally defensive in nature, most significantly a vast network of roads, forts and watchtowers constructed along the Rhine and Danube rivers. For the hawkish Senators, this was just another reason to hate Domitian. After a failed revolt by the governor of the upper Rhine in 89 AD, Domitian, distrustful by nature, grew more paranoid and harsh, reinstating the treason trials; he was self-aware enough to lament that, "no one believes in secret plots against the emperor, unless the emperor turns up dead." His paranoia turned out to be a self-fulfilling prophecy. In 96 AD, Domitian was stabbed to death by a court official, although who else was involved remains unclear. On hearing of his death the Senate rejoiced, ordered his statues toppled, and damned his name. Emperor Nerva (96-98 AD) The sudden assassination of Domitian threatened to open the door to another period of civil war, but on this occasion the Senate moved quickly before the provincial generals began dreaming imperial dreams. Within hours of his death, they proclaimed as Emperor, Nerva, who was seen as the perfect stop-gap. He was a staunch ally of the Flavian Dynasty thus easing the transition, having served as a close imperial advisor to Vespasian, Titus, and Domitian, as well as a number of official positions under the Julio-Claudians. He was also already 69 and childless, thus ambitious men had reason to hope to soon succeed him through adoption. All was not well with the two other institutions that had grown accustomed to having the final word on succession, the Praetorian Guard and the wider legions. The Senate may have loathed Domitian, but he had always retained the loyalty of the army. Nerva's brief reign was marred by difficulties. His quest to win popularity with the people, with lower taxes and a welfare program for the poor, led the Empire into shaky financial territory. His reluctance to discipline the Senate, the one part of the political system that really supported him, saw the body turn itself over real or imagined pass offenses, prompting one member to observe that the tyranny of Domitian was perhaps preferable to the anarchy of Nerva. A year into his reign, the Praetorian Guard, recognising his weakness, besieged the emperor in the imperial palace, and briefly took him hostage until he gave in to their miscellaneous demands. This unsettling ordeal made Nerva realise that his position was becoming untenable without the support of an acceptable heir. Shortly afterwards, he suddenly announced that he was adopting Trajan, the most popular and accomplished general of the day. With this decision, any hint of revolt or civil war disappeared almost overnight, and Nerva all but abdicated, dying of a stroke a few months later. This one decision would earn Nerva a place in Edward Gibbon's so-called Five Good Emperors ''in his seminal work, ''The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire. ''Rome enjoyed an unprecedented run of outstanding Emperors from Trajan to Antonius Pius who all succeeded through adoption, until Rome's luck finally ran-out with Commodus, a natural son. His constructed narratives has found little support among modern historians. The policy of adoption was not a choice, but simply arose because of a lack of natural sons as heir. The eight Emperors beginning with Vespasian were all effective rulers in their different ways, with Nerva perhaps an exception. Adopted would bring its own problems that would be all too evident in the late Roman Empire; it would allow ambitious men to ask themselves, "''if anyone can be Emperor, why not me?" Emperor Trajan (98–117 AD) Almost everyone agreed that Nerva had made the best choice for Emperor in Trajan, and the remarkable thing is that he actually managed to exceed the high expectations everybody had for him. After his death, every new emperor would be honoured by the Senate with the wish: "may he be luckier than Augustus and better than Trajan." He had been born in Spain, into an Italian family that rose to prominence under the Flavians; his father was governor of the important province of Syria. This of course made him the first Roman Emperor to be born outside Italy, and he brought with him a very different worldview than his predecessors; recognising that the Empire would not survive if it remained simply a collection of conquered people ruled by an elite in Rome. His reign would be a major landmark, allowing men of merit from across the Empire to believe that every door was open to them. On becoming Emperor, Trajan quickly and effectively consolidated his position. He was a natural leader, and brought to the imperial palace an easy going authority that won him fierce loyalty; competent and fair, stern but understanding. Until Nerva's death, he stayed away from Rome, not wanting to overshadow his stepfather, and instead toured the frontiers, checking the defences and discipline of the legions. When he did make his way to Rome, Trajan set the tone for his reign, entering the city without pomp on foot to greet his adoring subjects. He continued in this vain as he met with the Senate, treated the proud nobles with respect; he maintained a good rapport with the body throughout his reign, though did not share power with it in any meaningful way. Trajan's domestic policies focused on ensuring political and economic peace across the empire, and dismantling the micro-management that had characterised Domitian's reign; cutting the bloated imperial bureaucracy and trusting in the sound judgement of provincial governors. Of course, Trajan had his own reasons for delegating some of his power, for much of his reign would be spent expanding the empire to its greatest territorial extent. Trajan’s first foreign war was against the troublesome kingdom of Dacia, to the north of the Danube (modern day Romania); Trajan's Dacian Wars (101-106 AD). His preparation for this invasion was the kind of meticulous planning that had not been seen since Julius Caesar: reorganising the legions along the Rhine and Danube so border security would not suffer during his campaign; and expanded the road network to secure his supply-lines. In 101 AD, Trajan personally led the legions across the Danube, quickly defeating the Dacians at the Battle of Tapae (September 101 AD). Yet they proved a stubborn enemy, and in the end Trajan settled for reducing Dacia to a client-state. But the Dacian king had never been one to respect a peace agreement, and soon returned to harassing the frontier. In preparation from a second campaign, Trajan ordered the construction of the first permanent bridge over the Danube, over which the Roman army was able to cross the river swiftly and in numbers; it would remain the longest bridge built by man for a thousand years. In 105, he took to the field again, driving for the capital in a three pronged attack. When full frontal assault on the city failed, Trajan turned to cunning, cutting-off the capital's water supply and until the Dacians surrendered. Dacia became the last major province to be added to the Roman Empire. The rich gold mines of the province would be funding all the Roman's dreams for years to come. During Trajan's reign it funded a whole host of infrastructure project all over Italy and the provinces, such as baths and aqueducts to enhance the material lives of his subjects. The centrepiece of his public works was the Forum of Trajan, Rome's largest public space with at its heart the 30-metre-high marble Trajan’s Column, commemorating his victory. In 113 AD, at the age of sixty, Trajan embarked on his second major foreign war; Trajan's Parthian War (115-117 AD). The war was provoked when Parthian Persia decided to put an unacceptable king on the throne of Armenia, in violation of the settlement reached by Nero. Rather than placing his own puppet on the throne, he then formally annexed Armenia as a Roman province. Although the pretext for war had been achieved, Trajan pressed on, invading Persia itself in what was clearly now an open-ended war of conquest. In just two years, he carved out a huge portion of the Parthian Empire, from the Caspian Sea to the Persian Gulf, including the capital of Ctesiphon. His only regret, expressed in a letter to the Senate, was that his advance age prevented him from following Alexander the Great all the way to India. Trajan was on his way back to Rome in 117 AD after a physically trying campaign, when he suffered a stroke and died. On his death, Trajan was deified by the Senate and his ashes were laid-to-rest beneath Trajan's Column. He was the last of the great conquering Romans, and for that the people and the Senate loved him. But equally important in his legacy was the guiding principle that he repeated over and over again with his senior bureaucrats and governors, that ruling was about the welfare of the people. These principles would see the empire reach its full potential under his successors, but it was all too fleeting, as the slip from enlightened despotism to despotic tyranny came just 60 years later. Emperor Hadrian (117-138 AD) There was a seamless transition from Trajan to his cousin Hadrian. Hadrian had held various important positions prior to becoming emperor of Rome; a former Consul and provincial governor, with ample military experience at the highest level. However, he was only adopted on Trajan's deathbed, which led to wide speculation that Trajan actually died without nominating an heir, and it was his widow Plotina who orchestrated the succession lest the empire descend into civil war. If it was a plot, then it bore-fruit for Rome for the next 21 year. Hadrian's reign was in marked contract to Trajan’s, as he returned to Augustus' policy of establishing defensible frontiers for the empire's vast territories; future emperor's would follow his precedence, usually by necessity. Within day of becoming emperor, he order the legions to begin withdrawing from all the territories in the east Trajan had just conquered, considering it to be indefensible. The Euphrates once again became Rome's eastern border, and it’s a testament to Hadrian's political skill that he was able to make such an unpopular decision. Hadrian energetically pursued his Imperial ideals, spending more than half his reign away from Rome, visiting almost every province of the empire. Wherever he went, he restored discipline and moral to the legions, upgraded defences, and donated money for local infrastructure improvements. The defining artefact of his reign was Hadrian's Wall. During the impressive seven-year governorship of Gnaeus Julius Agricola, the initial conquest of Britannia under Claudius, had been extended to all of Wales and Northern England by 84 AD. On his visit in 122 AD, Hadrian decided that advances further into Scotland were untenable, and ordered the construction of a defensive barrier stretching seventy-five miles from coast to coast; the massively impressive structure took the Romans only about eight years to complete. Nonetheless, Hadrian's policy of strengthening the outlying areas of empire would meet with disastrous results in Palestine. He ordered a massive reconstruction program in the region that had be devastated sixty years earlier during the Great Jewish Revolt. On the ruined Temple Mount there was to be a shrine to Jupiter. Jewish resentment at this sacrilege boiled-over into the Third Jewish War (132–136 AD). Led by Simon bar Kokhba, the Jewish rebels fought a brutal guerilla war that spread as far as Egypt and Cyprus. In the end, it took six full legions, and elements from up to six others, to finally crush the revolt. It was a bitter campaign, fought village by village throughout the region, and causing such devastation to the Jewish communities that some modern scholars have described it as genocide; in truth there were atrocities on both sides. The later years of Hadrian’s reign saw his temper grow shorted, and there was a marked increase in treason trials. His enemies in the Senate saw it as confirmation that he had been a tyrant all along; the hawkish aristocracy had always resented Hadrian’s refusal to expand the frontiers, as well as his fondness for all things Greek, including an indiscrete homosexual relationship with a young man called Antinous. Hadrian died at the age of 62 of heart failure after a prolonged illness. Emperor Antoninus Pius (138-161 AD) Before his death, Hadrian had announced to a shocked Rome that he was adopting as his heir Antoninus Pius, a well-liked but obscure man who’d spent his entire career in the Senate. The years of Antoninus Pius would prove the most harmonious in the history of the Roman Empire. At peace at home and abroad, it has often been called Golden Age of Imperial Rome. Trade and commerce flourished and his strict control of finances allowed for a generous state surplus by the time of his death. Antoninus was deeply conservative and emphasised continuity over novelty in all things, none more so than his attitude to public-works; he more or less abandoned new construction, and focused on maintaining the existent, especially roads. However, his reputations never suffered from his public tight-fistedness, because he was generous with his own personal fortune; underwriting the emergency relief to natural disasters from his own pocket. He also codified the rules for how slaves should be treated, such as the punishment of a master for killing a slave; a long overdue law since the days of acquiring new slaves through conquest were largely over after Trajan. Yet, Antoninus’ otherwise glowing reputation is dulled somewhat by what Rome endured in the decades following his death. With no military experience to his name, he allowed a sense of complacency to set-in among the legions destroying much of Hadrian's good work. He also steadfastly refused to admit new client kingdoms beyond the frontiers on the empire, thus leading to resentment by those on the outs, and allowing minor problems to become crises for his successors. Emperor Marcus Aurelius (161-180 AD) At the far-seeing insistence of Hadrian, Antoninus Pius had adopted the then fifteen-year-old Marcus Aurelius '''at the start of his reign. Being groomed from an early age to become emperor might have gone to another man's head, but, even at a young age, Marcus was already showing signs of the Stoic character that would come to define him. With Marcus always at his side, Antoninus groomed the heir apparent in almost every aspect of becoming an efficient emperor, with one glaring omission. Since his adopted father never left Italy, Marcus never governed a province, or served in the legions, or even visit the places he would one day rule. It is to his great credit that he was able to overcome this lack of practical worldly experience. When Antoninus Pius died, Marcus Aurelius insisted on ruling jointly as emperor with his younger brother Lucius Verus; understanding what later Romans would take for granted, that one man cannot govern the whole of the Mediterranean by himself. For the introspective Marcus Aurelius and fun-loving Lucius Verus, their reign would prove to be one of near continuous war, plague and disaster. The peace, that the frontiers had enjoyed for almost forty years, was immediately shattered by renewed aggression from Parthian Persia. Determined to test the new emperors, the Parthians invaded and annexed Armenia, and dared the Romans to do anything about it; the '''Roman–Parthian War (161–166 AD). When the initial local response proved disastrous, co-emperor Lucius Verus took personal command in the east, although he relied heavily on capable generals, especially the brilliant Avidius Cassius (d. 175 AD). In 163 AD, in a well-planned campaign, the Romans quickly took the Armenian capital and drove off what was left of the Parthian invasion force. There followed a year of posturing by the two great powers, with the Parthians refusing all offered peace-terms. Thus in 165 AD, the Romans launch assault into Parthia itself, capturing and sacking the capital of Ctesiphon. With this defeat, the Parthians agreed peace, with Armenia remaining a Roman province. Yet, it would prove a hollow victory, because legions brought back from the east the Antonine Plague, probably smallpox. The plague would wreak havoc first in the legions and then in the public at large for the next decade, killing roughly 5 million people or 10% of the Roman population. It even killed Marcus' brother Lucius in 169 AD. For many years, the Rhine and Danube frontiers of the empire had attracted Germanic tribes, in order to trade with Rome and occasionally raid. Until the reign of Marcus Aurelius, the Romans had easily dealt with troublesome Germanic tribes, through a policy of divide-and-conquer, deftly playing one tribe against another. However, when the war with Parthia erupted, the Romans were forced to redeploy legions to meet the threat, depleting the Rhine and Danube frontiers. This did not go unnoticed to the Germanic tribes, and coincided with a new phenomena among the tribes as they began to coalesce into larger and larger alliances. From 166 AD, the northern border of the empire was suddenly beset beset by attacks on multiple fronts; the Marcomannic Wars (166-180 AD). Not all wanted to raid and plunder. Some were angling for improve trading terms, some fancied greater tribute to keep their tribe loyal, while other wanted the right to migrate into the empire. One raid reached almost as far as Athens, and another even besieged Aquileia in the north of the Italian peninsula. It would take nine years for Marcus Aurelius to eventually stabalise the frontier again, through a combination of negotiating peace with individual Germanic tribes and genocidal purges of others. The emperor may have settled things further on the Danube, but for a usurper. In 175 AD, after receiving the erroneous news that Marcus Aurelius was dead, the renowned general Avidius Cassius was proclaimed Roman emperor in the east. It soon became clear that the emperor was still alive, and the rebellion quickly fizzled out, with Cassius being killed by his own troops. Marcus Aurelius spent the next few years touring the east restoring order, but returned to the Danube frontier again in 178 AD. The legions were again being hard-pressed against a new tactic of the Germanic tribes, a demoralising guerilla war. The emperor died there two years later in 180 AD. Marcus Aurelius is also famous for his writings, and his collection of honest personal philosophical reflections known as the Meditations. Yet for all there is to admire about the man, the ultimate legacy of his reign was tragic. It marked the transition between the era of Pax Romana and that of crisis for the Roman Empire, beginning under his own natural son Commodus; a break from the recent imperial tradition of adoption. Roman Achievement If the Ancient Greek contribution to civilisation was essentially mental and spiritual, that of Rome was structural and practical; its essence was the empire itself. Within the frontiers there was order and peace as never before, and a common culture whose spread was made easier by the new swiftness of communication along the roads. Napoleon could not move couriers faster from Paris to Rome than could the emperors of the first century AD. The empire was a huge area and required the solution of problems of government which had not been faced by Greeks or solved by Persians. A complex bureaucracy appeared with remarkable scope, and all the evidence is that the administration underwent a notable improvement under the empire by comparison with the corruption of the last century of the republic. The Roman Empire had outstanding powers of assimilation, a mixing of East and West, and remarkable tolerance for racial diversity; only the Jews felt strongly about the retention of their distinction within it. The Romans themselves made much of their inheritance from the Greeks, and all educated Romans were bilingual; literacy in both languages was high. Yet in most areas of learning and the arts, Roman thinkers only provided again what Greeks had already done better. Only in two practical fields were the Romans to be great innovators: law and engineering. The legal developments spanned over a thousand years of jurisprudence, from the Twelve Tables (449 BC), to the Code of Justinian (529 AD), and forms the basic framework for civil law, the most widely used legal system today. The engineering achievements the empire of Rome can still be seen in relics all around the western Mediterranean shores and across wide tracts of western Europe, the Balkans and Asia Minor. The capital, of course, contained some of its most spectacular relics. It was based on cheap labour: in Rome it was slaves and in the provinces often the legions in peaceful times who carried out the great works of hydraulic engineering, bridging and road- building. It was a source of pride to the Romans and one of the few things in which they were sure they outstripped the Greeks. Birth of Christianity At some time around 33 AD, the governor of the Roman province of Judea reluctantly authorised the death by crucifixion of a Jewish religious agitator in Jerusalem; Jesus of Nazareth. No trace of the life of Jesus survives in any historical record other than in the four Gospels, for he was an obscure preacher in his own time. Nevertheless, there is little doubt that the historical person of Jesus actually existed. He was probably born in Galilee about 6 BC; Herod died in 4 BC and there is some evidence of a Roman census in the Judea in 6 BC. It was a bad moment in the history of a turbulent province. The Jews resented Rome as the latest of a long line of conquerors, and were bitterly divided among themselves, with religious festivals often stained by bloodshed. Some sect such as the Zealots looked to nationalist resistance as the way ahead, while others looked forward to the coming of a Messiah, a concept that entered Jewish tradition during the dark times of Babylonian exile (586-63 BC). The ministry of Jesus began when he was baptised by John the Baptist, an event which Luke places in the 15th year of the Tiberius' reign or 29 AD. Jesus' message of repentance and eternal salvation was particularly resonant to the poor and downtrodden, and he attracted a modest but incredibly loyal group of followers, especially with his apparent ability to work miracles, often of healing. He also had regular companions, his disciples. His teachings were pretty radical in its anti-authoritarian stance, and the arrival of Jesus and his enthusiastic followers in Jerusalem just before the festival of Passover would certainly have been alarming to the Roman authorities. He had also been critical of the Jewish authorities, and his actions did little to reassure them, especially when he smashed the stalls of the traders outside the Temple. It was inevitably that he would have been arrested and punished. He was supposedly charged with claiming to be the King of the Jews, a political affront to the Romans and a blasphemous one to the Jews. With some reluctance, Pontius Pilate condemned him to crucifixion, a form of Roman execution reserved for agitators, pirates and slaves. With the details of his resurrected from the dead three day after the crucifixion, the Gospel account of Jesus became the story of the Christians. To his energetic followers, Jesus had been Christ the Messiah, the son of God, who would return one day to redeem the world. St. Peter and St. James soon emerged as the de-facto leaders of this small Christian community. The preaching of the good news soon brought the Christians their first martyr, when St. Stephen was lynched by a Jewish crowd. One of those who witnessed this was Saul of Tarsus, a keen upholder of Jewish orthodoxy; known to history as St. Paul. After his dramatic conversion, he became the first great Christian missionary; as a full Roman citizen he could travel freely throughout the Roman world. The early Christians were all Jews, but in Anatolia and Greece, St. Paul introduced a startling new element to Christianity by converting people of non-Jewish descent. In 50 AD, an apostolic council at Jerusalem took the momentous decision to relax the requirements for gentiles; circumcision and Jewish dietary restrictions would not be compulsory for Christians. This was a crucial turning point for the growing Christian Church, turning it from just a sect of Judaism, to a budding world religion. In about 55 AD, St Paul returned to Jerusalem, where he was assaulted by hostile Jews and had to be rescued by the Roman authorities. He was apparently transported to Rome in order to appeal to the emperor, because early Christian tradition states that both St. Paul and St. Peter met their deaths in Rome during the 60s; probably during the persecutions by Emperor Nero following the Great Fire of Rome (64 AD). Thus they became the two Saints most associated with the city, underpinning the subsequent status of the papacy. It is also notable that just forty years after the death of Jesus, Christians were sufficiently numerous in the capital to attract persecution. The spread of Christianity within the Roman Empire was not a unique phenomenon. By the 2nd-century, belief in the traditional Roman pantheon of gods was losing it's hold on the people, as exposure to the East unleashed a slow inexorable religious revolution. Despite various decrees and persecutions, Romans still searched for the answers to the great question of "why are we here" in the cult of Isis, or early Christianity, or Egyptian astrology. In this, Christianity was unique in its willingly embracing the downtrodden, from slaves to common legionaries, and even women, who just so happened to make up the bulk of the Roman Empire. While it were sometimes persecuted, Christianity continued to gain faithful adherents, until the Emperor Constantine declared religious tolerance for the worship of Jesus Christ, and eventually converted himself. Category:Historical Periods